S HARRY SULLIVAN'S WAR Harry felt as though he were fighting his way up out of a deep swamp Tight bands seemed to bind his chest and his head and his eyes throbbed as the darkness pressed down on them, like tons and tons of black mud With agonising slowness he struggled up towards the fresh air and the light, writhing and threshing his limbs against the clinging, sucking mass of the swamp Whenever he opened his mouth to breathe, the stifling mud oozed into his lungs and choked him, and whenever he stopped his struggle to rest a moment he felt himself being dragged inexorably back into the unknown depths HARRY SULLIVAN'S WAR IAN MARTER By arrangement with the British Broadcasting Corporation A TARGET BOOK published by the Paperback Division of W.H Allen & Co PLC A Target Book Published in 1986 by the Paperback Division of W.H Allen & Co PLC 44 Hill Street, London W1X 8LB Copyright © Ian Marter, 1986 Printed and bound in Great Britain by Anchor Brendon Ltd, Tiptree, Essex ISBN 426 20250 This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any other form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser CONTENTS 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 A Brush With Death Happy Birthday! The Castle Persuasion An Odd Weekend Unexplained Mysteries The Amateur Investigator A Human Guinea Pig More Clues The Chase Trapped The Prisoner Double Bluff Secrets of the Burial Mound Ambush Out On A Limb Epilogue 11 23 28 36 46 57 66 72 83 92 104 111 122 134 147 A Brush With Death Despite the grey chilly weather outside, the deserted gymnasium felt hot and stuffy Harry Sullivan lay on the padded bench, gasping and running with sweat as he forced his numb arms to push the barbell up off his chest and then locked his elbows in a final agonising repetition of the bench-press routine 'Forty 'he panted, logging his progress and his age with the same number 'Life begins at forty ' he muttered wryly, trying to lower the heavy barbell safely onto the bench behind his head and screwing up his eyes with the effort 'Is that so?' boomed a rich bass voice above him Harry opened his eyes to see a grinning brown face looming over him upside down The crippling weights were effortlessly snatched out of his hands by a gigantic West Indian who playfully wielded the barbell as though it were a squash racket, his enormous arms bulging with awesome power as he casually placed it on the floor 'Don't think I've had the pleasure ' Harry gasped, wiping the sweat out of his eyes with one hand and waving the other in the air in a proffered handshake 'But thanks a lot, old chap.' A resonant chuckle tinged with malice made Harry glance sharply up again He just managed to glimpse an explosion of glossy brown muscles before a crushing weight suddenly landed on his chest, forcing all the breath completely out of his lungs 'Not at all, old chap!' boomed the grinning strongman 'Always glad to help out.' An earthquake of a laugh shook the empty gymnasium and the huge face vanished from Harry's panic-stricken view For a few seconds, Harry lay stunned and helpless Then he grasped the barbell and his eyes bulged with effort as he vainly attempted to shift it off his flattened ribcage His ears thumped like steam-hammers and brilliantly coloured flashes exploded 1 in his head as the steel bar pressed relentlessly into his body He tried to call out, but there was no air in his squashed lungs and he couldn't even snatch the smallest breath With desperate determination he gripped the bar with both hands on the left side of his body and managed to push it slowly across his chest, so that it overbalanced on the right side and the huge iron discs hit the floor with a deafening clang At last he was able to take a few gulpWhy have you disobeyed your instructions to remain in the United Kingdom?' Shire demanded abruptly Harry shrugged 'Curiosity 'he mumbled 'Curiosity murdered the cat!' Brodsky snapped, staring balefully at him Somebody laughed from the shadows Squinting into the darkness, Harry made out Waldo's neat wiry figure in immaculate evening dress lounging against the guardrail Harry sipped more champagne 'Perhaps, Mr Brodsky But I am not a cat.' Brodsky laughed sourly 'All the same, Commander, you seem to believe that you have nine lives.' 'No thanks to you lot,' Harry retorted recklessly Brodsky shook his head 'You have only yourself to blame if you have used up eight already.' Harry grinned at Rudolf as the giant topped up his glass yet again 'Come come, Mr Brodsky, you're forgetting that you still need me,' he muttered defiantly 'You still want the antidote samples.' Harry turned to Shire 'And I assume that you want your daughter to recover, Doctor.' Shire threw back his head and laughed in Harry's face 'You're a fool, Sullivan,' he scoffed contemptuously 'Samantha recovered in a few days The girl you met in the wheelchair is her twin sister Natasha/ The American glanced through the restaurant windows at the glittering throng inside 'Poor Natasha No antidote or drug will ever make her walk again She fell from a horse when she was twelve and injured her spinal cord.' Harry smiled bitterly 'So you used her to trick me and I fell for it,' he admitted 'But then I found out about Samantha's amazing recovery A friend of mine met her when she came up to Castle Mackie to interview you a few days after the 141 business up at the ruin.' Shire frowned uneasily 'But if you knew she had recovered 'he muttered, glancing at Brodsky and then back at Harry Harry gulped some more champagne and nodded slyly T just pretended not to know and went along with your plan so I could get the evidence on Gold ' Brodsky's face was livid with rage 'You will suffer for this!' he snarled Shire put a restraining hand on Brodsky's quivering arm and stared coldly at Harry 'Your people may have got Gold and Curly,' he growled, gesturing at the brightly lit windows behind him 'But there's plenty of others to take their places.' The combination of danger and alcohol had made Harry feel light-headed and reckless 'Actually, Samantha's rapid recovery has given our research bods some jolly valuable information about Attila 305 Toxin,' he blurted out smugly Brodsky waddled over and thrust his waxy perspiring face into Harry's 'It has also given us extremely valuable information, Commander Sullivan,' he sneered 'And as a result we have no longer any need of your help or your hindrance.' Harry drained his glass for the umpteenth time and glared defiantly at Brodsky Then he flung the glass over the guardrail and it fell tinkling and smashing against the lattice of steel beneath them With a swashbuckling flourish, he took off his dinner jacket and flung it after the champagne glass Taking a deep breath, he squared up to Zbigniew Brodsky in an oldfashioned prize fighter's stance 'I don't like you, Brodsky ' he cried in a cracked, slurred voice 'I don't like you one little bit Put up your fists!' He danced unsteadily round the speechless, immobile figure and then tripped over his own feet and slumped against the steel balustrade Next moment Rudolf Rainbow lurched forward, grabbed Harry round the waist and hoisted him off his feet With effortless ease he held his victim out over the balustrade Harry's heart leaped into his mouth as he stared down into 142 the darkness yawning almost a thousand feet beneath him He was instantly sober 'A tragic accident ' Brodsky chuckled icily 'Commander Sullivan fell from the Tour Eiffel while under the influence of alcohol There were no witnesses.' Instinctively Harry managed to jam his feet into the crisscross struts of the balustrade framework Grasping the guardrail with both hands, he bent his legs and then suddenly straightened them, driving the top of his head as hard as he could against the strongman's jutting chin Rainbow uttered a roar of surprise and slackened his grip on Harry's belt Instantly Harry ducked and scrambled away out of reach, down and across the iron latticework 'You incompetent great colossus!' Brodsky ranted 'Waldo, get after him Don't let Sullivan escape!' As he grappled his way underneath the deck of the promenade, clinging for his life to the iron joists running out at rightangles to the main structure, Harry heard someone clambering over the guardrail in pursuit of him A few seconds later he saw Waldo's lithe shirt-sleeved figure swinging with agile ease along the beams towards him 'You are safe now, Englishman ' Waldo called mockingly 'Waldo Tedescu, trapeze artiste extraordinaire of the Romanian National Circus will save you.' Harry lashed out with his legs in a desperate attempt to straddle one of the thick girders forming part of the restaurant deck He fought against the dizziness in his head and the nausea rising in his stomach and tried to forget that he was hanging a thousand feet above the ground, with only the tapering steel framework of the tower between him and the concrete paving stones He knew that if he slipped, the hundreds of crisscrossing struts would shred him into pieces like a lump of cheese on a grater, long before he hit the ground Hand over hand, he worked his way perilously towards one of the main legs of the tower and at last succeeded in jamming his feet into one of the diamond-shaped spaces formed by the complex steel ribs With numb fingers he clung to the cold struts Trembling as the gusty wind clutched greedily as his clothes, he watched the athletic 143 ... moment he felt himself being dragged inexorably back into the unknown depths HARRY SULLIVAN'S WAR IAN MARTER By arrangement with the British Broadcasting Corporation A TARGET BOOK published... HARRY SULLIVAN'S WAR Harry felt as though he were fighting his way up out of a deep swamp Tight bands seemed... used up eight already.' Harry grinned at Rudolf as the giant topped up his glass yet again 'Come come, Mr Brodsky, you're forgetting that you still need me,' he muttered defiantly 'You still want